Mobile, remotely controlled robots such as the TALON robot (Foster-Miller, Inc., Waltham, Mass.) are often used in a wide variety of circumstances and environments. On the battlefield or otherwise, small, maneuverable, lightweight, remote control robots can be used to minimize human exposure to potentially lethal environments and situations. The Foster-Miller Talon™ robot has been widely used to detect and disable explosive devices and ordnances in the field including roadside bombs in Iraq. One advantage of using a remotely controlled robot is that it eliminates the need for personnel to approach the explosive device. The individuals controlling the robot may remain at a relatively safe distance, usually a few hundred meters from the explosive device.
Disabling the explosive most often requires that the robot perform multiple operations, including digging to expose the device, gripping to move the device or to remove any covering over the device, and/or cutting to sever control wires and disable the device.
Robots employed to detect and disable explosive devices typically have an arm with an end effecter or tool which is capable of accomplishing these operations.
There are also instances where items, equipment, and even personnel need to be transported by the robot. Commercially available trailers are not well suited for this task. Such trailers are not equipped to couple to and disengage from the towing vehicle automatically. Therefore, the trailer, once coupled to a robot, and maneuvered by the robot to a location some distance from the operator, can not be decoupled from the robot without human interaction. There are situations where, for example, the robot's mission is to tow a trailer to one location, decouple from the trailer, and maneuver about that location and/or maneuver to another location and then later recouple to the trailer and return to the operator. It would also be useful to tow a trailer loaded with a munition, for example, to a target, decouple the robot from the robot, and then maneuver the robot to a safe location before detonating the munition.
Currently available trailers also have no brake mechanism to arrest the trailer, for example, on sloping terrain once it is decoupled from the robot. Also, commercially available trailers are not generally configured to traverse obstacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,629 incorporated herein by this reference, discloses a hitch mechanism for tandem robots but does not suggest a trailer coupled to a robot. Also, the hitch mechanism is fairly complex and requires many active (i.e. driven) components adding to the complexity of the robot.